


New Friends

by Bluewolf458



Category: Stargate SG-1, The Sentinel
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-17
Updated: 2015-03-17
Packaged: 2018-03-18 08:06:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3562376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a camping holiday,Jim and Blair meet Jack and Daniel</p>
            </blockquote>





	New Friends

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Sentinel Thursday prompt 'drizzle'

New Friends

by Bluewolf

The campsite was almost deserted.

A week earlier it had been busy, nearly fifty tents dotting the ground, but during the preceding two days group after group packed up and left, driven away by the weather, which had gone from warm and pleasant to a fine drizzle that, while not pleasant, was not actually unpleasant, to wet and definitely unpleasant, and was showing no sign of improving.

By chance, the two tents still on the site were close together. Their occupants arrived on the same day, at the same time, the one vehicle only a minute behind the other, and pitched their tents on the only bit of open ground left; not the best of sites, but the people camped on what had seemed the best sites had been the first to leave as the river overflowed and flooded their camps. The two pairs of men, talking casually as they pitched their tents, discovered they had enough in common that they had teamed up the next day to go hiking.

Like Jim, Jack had been in the armed forces. Like Jim, he said almost nothing about it. They were both happy to leave Blair and Daniel to do most of the talking.

Both pairs were aware that there was a lot their new acquaintances were not saying about themselves, but since both pairs were aware of their own need for secrecy, they accepted the closed-mouth reaction of the others without resentment.

The last two days had been altogether too wet for them to consider going anywhere, however, and on both days Jim and Blair, in the smaller tent, had braved the elements only long enough to rush over to the larger one, and the four had played cards, exchanging increasingly taller stories - though Jim knew that some of Blair's tallest tales were actually true, and suspected that many of archaeologist Daniel's were, too.

Common sense told all four that they should pack up, since the river was still rising; Jim at least was well aware that the low pressure was showing no sign of moving away. But for all four this break was a welcome relief from the stresses of their everyday lives.

Halfway through the afternoon of their second tent-bound day, Jack said, "This is stupid. Look - I've got a small cabin not too far from here. How about we all move there? We'll get the last of our leave, but in more comfort than these tents offer. And if it does dry up, there's good hiking around and a lake... " He grinned. "I go fishing there, but actually there are no fish in it. I just find it relaxing, you know? Holding a fishing pole gives me a reason for just sitting there doing nothing."

Daniel shook his head. "Pointless," he said.

"Now are you calling it pointless because you don't fish, or pointless because there are no fish to catch?" Blair asked.

"A bit of both," Daniel said thoughtfully. "You can spend all day fishing someplace where there _are_ fish, and catch nothing. It kind of wastes the day, but that's the way it goes. Pretending to fish where there aren't any, though..."

"There's always the anticipation," Blair said.

"How can you anticipate catching anything when there's absolutely nothing there to catch?" Daniel demanded. "You _know_ you're wasting your time. I can understand the hope of catching something in a river where there are fish, even though I think it's a waste of time; you don't even know what you're going to catch. Go to a fish shop and you get a choice of a dozen kinds of fish, already cleaned and probably already filleted."

Jack shook his head sadly. "I'll never convince him," he said. "And this is the guy who'll spend hours trying to make sense out of a few squiggles he sees on a rock - "

"Cuneiform? Hieroglyphics?" Blair asked.

"Either. Both," Daniel said.

"Now I find that aspect of archeology interesting," Blair said. "Digging, though... You can dig all day and find nothing."

"There's the anticipation." Daniel threw Blair's own words back at him. "The next sweep of the trowel might uncover something that hasn't seen the light of day for three thousand years."

"And it's even more likely to uncover nothing," Jack said.

"It's still more potentially productive than fishing," Daniel said, "especially in a lake that doesn't have any fish!"

They laughed, and decided to pack up and move to Jack's cabin, though Jim and Blair knew that they certainly wouldn't join Jack in 'fishing'. Though if it stayed as wet as it was, Jack probably wouldn't move from the cabin either; but their story-telling and card playing would be done in rather more comfort.

Half an hour was long enough to get everything bundled up. The wet tents went into the back of Jim's pickup, the packs into the back of Jack's car where they would stay dry; and then Jack started his car and moved off, Jim following a few yards behind. As they left the camp site, Jim knew they had made the right decision; before long, the river would overflow and begin to encroach on the road.

'Not far away' was a little further than Jack had implied, but a little over an hour saw them pulling up at the cabin.

By then, the rain had lessened to a fine drizzle...


End file.
